NDTV plans e-commerce foray in food, auto and gadgets

Media house and broadcaster NDTV is planning new online ventures in the field of food, auto and gadgets and has signed preliminary, non-binding term sheets with potential investors, the company said in a notification on the Bombay Stock Exchange. NDTV will be carrying the ventures through its subsidiary NDTV Convergence.

“Further, the term sheets are non-binding and are subject to the parties agreeing upon and executing the definitive agreements which will include detailed terms and conditions in relation to the Proposed Transactions. Further, the Proposed Transactions will be subject to various conditions precedent to be specified in the definitive agreements including due diligence, receipt of requisite corporate authorisations/ approvals and regulatory approvals,” the company added in its notification.

Earlier in March, NDTV’s board had accorded (pdf) an in principle nod to setting up of online ventures which includes digital transactions and in November 2014, its board of directors had mandated NDTV management to focus on further investing in its online assets “to accelerate the Company’s leadership position to benefit from the digital revolution”. It’s also interesting to note that NDTV had earlier stated plans of merging NDTV Convergence Limited with NDTV Labs Limited to a new unnamed subsidiary, for which it had received board approval in Q3-FY14.

NDTV Convergence financials: For the quarter ended March 31, NDTV Convergence witnessed a 47% year-on-year revenue growth in FY15 to Rs 107 crore. Again it’s worth noting that NDTV does not seem to think the division is important enough to separate it out in its financials. It’s probably because web accounts for only a tiny part of NDTV’s revenues: it had accounted for only 7% of NDTV’s consolidated revenues in FY13 .

Indianroots.in funding: Earlier in May, NDTV’s e-commerce business NDTV Ethnic Retail Limited, which operates ethnic apparel online store IndianRoots.in, raised $5 million funding from KJS Group. The company claimed after the round of funding, IndianRoots was valued at $85 million and said that the funds will be used to scale up the platform’s logistics and delivery mechanisms and to invest in marketing activities.